City to offer more recycled water to vineyards

State mandate to stop discharging treated wastewater to former gravel pit adjacent to Russian River
The Healdsburg City Council is moving forward with a $1.1 million plan to expand the city’s recycled wastewater system. The approved funding will pay to add an additional 991 acres to the city’s wastewater recycling program, which gets rid of treated water mainly by distributing it for vineyard irrigation.
The latest efforts are part of an ongoing battle the city is fighting after sewage was spilled into the Russian River more than 20 years ago. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent and the utility will be only about a third of the way to the state mandated goal after this latest project, with the clock ticking and ratepayers on the hook.
According to a 2005 order document issued by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, North Coast Region, wastewater spilled over into the Russian River on January 8, 1995, and again on March 11, 1995. The spills occurred at a wastewater pond used by the city and owned by Syar Industries Inc. about a half a mile south of where Dry Creek joins with the Russian River.
The spills drew the attention of the state agency, which slapped the Healdsburg utility with a Cease and Desist Order, prohibiting wastewater from discharging into the river.
By 2021, Healdsburg is mandated by the state water quality control board to find somewhere besides the Russian River to dispose of 138 million gallons a year of heavily treated wastewater.
After passing through extensive filtration, including an advanced filtration membrane, the water flows into the Basalt Pond near the treatment plant west of town.
From there, the reclaimed water goes through another, natural filtration process in the ground and moves underground into the Russian River aquifer.
The 2016 Recycled Water Pipeline project will add 12,000 feet of 16-inch pipe and 2,000 feet of 12-inch pipe to a network that delivers treated wastewater to nearby vineyards. In addition to irrigation, the recycled water is also used for dust control and in gravel processing.
Work is expected to begin as early as the end of the month. The recycled water pipeline system will be expanded to transport 54 million gallons from the current 10 million gallons.
The treatment facility can store about 25 million gallons, leaving more than 100 million still filtering into the river through the Basalt Pond, a former gravel pit adjacent to the river.
Original estimates for the project accounted for about $500,000, which was approved in the 2016-17 Healdsburg city budget. However, according to a city staff report presented at the Aug. 1 city council meeting, the original vision for the project would call for straight runs of piping. The project was redesigned to prevent disturbing areas that had not already been developed or otherwise disturbed already. In the new design, piping will be run along vineyard roads.
Instead of installing pipe in a levee about mile south of the treatment plant, an above ground segment will be constructed. “Because the levee is constructed of unengineered river bed materials,” the report states. “It was filled in as part of Syar’s operation and then driven over by thousands of trucks, and built that way,” said Fuss. “That’s what I was told.”
After revisions were made, the lowest bid for materials came from Pace Supply Corporation at $585,209.19. The lowest bid for construction labor and equipment came from Terra Con Pipelines at $425,443. An additional 10 percent, or $101,065, was also allocated as a contingency against cost overruns. In total the project is more than double the original estimate.
Known as “purple pipe,” the recycled wastewater is distributed in pipes painted purple so that they are not mistaken for freshwater pipes. Healdsburg Primary Water/Wastewater Engineer Patrick Fuss said that proximity is a key factor in who gets the water. Vineyards closest to the water treatment plant have had the option to have the purple pipe run to their property. The utility, and ultimately the ratepayers, pay for the pipe to be installed and maintained.
The water is provided without charge to the vineyards and to water trucks that haul it away about 3,000 gallons at a time, usually for dust control at construction sites.
Not everyone is on board with giving away the recycled water. City council member Brigette Mansell voted in favor of the project but would like to see more consideration given to bringing the purple pipe back into Healdsburg for uses such irrigation of parks.
“It’s expensive water and I’d like to have it brought back into town,” said Mansell. “It’s not something that we should give away.”
Both Fuss and Crowley cited a 2005 study that estimated that bringing purple pipe into Healdsburg from the treatment plant would cost between $9 and $13 million. With time and money being critical factors, “We’re pursuing the least costly avenues, first,” said Fuss.
Choosing not to charge vineyard owners for the water is also a part of that consideration. The water utility is concerned that charging for water is premature at this time. Fuss said that “Vineyard owners have water rights,” and the utility does not want to risk losing access to places to send the recycled water. Crowley said that vineyard owners spend about $8,000 to pump recycled water to 200 acres in a year.